Sunday Sitdown: Arthur Morin

How many lawn mowers do you think you have out there? I collect about anything I think I can get rid of gradually. I ain't fussy about what I collect, if it's decent.

I probably got 80 or 90. I keep them for parts, and I repair them. It's something to do. Whatever I make, I look at it this way: Hey, you don't get rich on Social Security. I work at the dump, so if I make a couple thousand a year, I say what the hell, taxes alone on the place is a couple thousand, and then you figure health insurance every month, two hundred-and-something there, house insurance is another thousand, you have to register your car, there's oil, electric, telephone — so you don't get really rich, but I look at it this way, if I make a couple thousand dollars a year on all odds and ends, it helps pay my taxes.

Are there things you look for when you collect?

I collect about anything I think I can get rid of gradually. I ain't fussy about what I collect, if it's decent.

What did you do before you retired?

Before I retired in 1995, I worked at Quaboag Rubber for 46 years. I quit school since I've been 11. I've been working since I was 11.

So you just like tinkering with things?

I work on stuff, I like it. I pick up saws, drills, I repair them. I probably got a hundred of them around. Get one apart, put 'em back together.

What do you like about that?

I like it as a hobby. Of course I worked with tools, I built my own house ... got all sorts of tools. I'm my own mechanic. Only thing I don't do is the car, with the electronics.

You built your own house?

There ain't nothing that's bought; it's all built. Ain't no blueprints, I designed the house myself.

Do you have a system? Everything seems organized.

It's halfway. I keep a little of everything. I can always find things pretty close.

Anything you're not going to get rid of?

I have guns, because I'm a hunter. And I fish. I do have a few rifles, those I won't give up ... I've had them for 20 to 25 years.

Is there anything you've gotten into recently?

No, I just pick everything. Anything I thought I could make a buck on down the road. Not because I'm getting rich, but I'm saying hey, what am I selling, maybe some years I sell maybe a thousand bucks' worth of stuff. It's a hobby, and that's the way I look at it.

So if you're driving and you see something on the side of the road...

If I want it I can pick it up, it's free a lot of times, along the side of the road. It works, because sometimes, I might sell a lawn mower, a guy might tell me, 'I ain't got this much money here, I ain't got 40-50 bucks, I'll give you 20 bucks worth of this stuff, take this,' and he gives me 20 bucks, and I get something, it's what you call wheeling and dealing in trade. You don't get rich, but it's a good hobby. I like it. It keeps me occupied.

It feels good taking stuff apart, doesn't it?

I do a lot of that. And I save everything because I work on everything. I hang up stuff, because I make stuff, and if I need certain stuff, I've got it. If I'm going to make something, I've got to see what I've got for inventory. If I have it, when I make it I'm not going to buy it. It can be wire, it can be anything. It works for me to do what I want to do. A lot of it I don't junk, I just let it hang for the purpose of my own use.

What's the oldest thing you have?

I don't know. I have a lot of old lights put away.

I see you have a few bikes over here.

I don't fool that much with bicycles, they ain't the best business ... I kept a few in case somebody calls and needs a wheel or something.

So people just throw things out these days … they don't want to fix things?

That's how I get lawn mowers. I repair them, fix them, up and somebody needs a lawn mower real bad. Guy says I got a couple or three down the house, will you take them, because otherwise I gotta pay to get rid of them.

Do a lot of people come to you?

I don't get swamped with people, but I get a call once a week. It's small. But hey, what the hell, I'm not looking for big work. I work at the dump a couple days a week. It gives me something to do in between.

Do you know where everything is?

Yes. I know roughly where it is. I know what I got around. I know I got it, I just have to dig it out. It might be buried, but I know what I've got.

Did you think you would get into something like this?

Well I've always played with it all my life, I take stuff apart.

So you said you started doing this after your wife died?

Oh yeah, after my wife died, I said hey, I'm not going to quit working completely, you know?

Do you think that had something to do with it? You know, you want to have stuff ...

This stuff you see is my water pumps. I have a water pump in the cellar, a 1963. You can't get the parts no more. So I save every part I can pick up. And I've been rebuilding my pump since 1963. If one goes to hell, I'll take another gearbox and completely redo it ...

Do you ever buy anything new?

I don't usually have to too often.

What's something people get rid of a lot that they could just have fixed?

One of the things people don't know what to do with is vacuum cleaners. One of the most wasteful things there is and people don't know what they're doing.